HELP!!
87 Ranger radio/cassette wiring diagram (wire colors) please and thanks!
I swapped my front fender-mounted brake light indicators last week, and after I went 5 miles, left went dark. Bad ground, I fixed that.
Then I tackled the illumination behind the gauges. Bulb dead, I fixed that. Now the brake indicator, that was working, isn’t working, but I’ll get to that tomorrow. From baking in the sun for 40 years, all that plastic stuff is as brittle as a potato chip.
Then, with the radio working fine, I not-so-wisely said “Gee, I bought those belts for the cassette player a while ago. While the dash is open, let me fix that!“. Yeah, I screwed myself.
I took the radio/cassette out no problem. After I took the slide catch off, and I took the bottom and top covers off, I realized I had to take the face plate out to get to a screw holding the cassette part in place. Well, I don’t know if it was poor design, or it was just 40 years sitting in the sun, but there’s a ribbon 20 circuit connector between the radio and the face plate that’s about 3/4 of an inch long, that’s held on with the breath from a small baby. When I took the face plate down, it pulled loose. There was a clear plastic holder on top of it, and I hoped that if I put it all back in place correctly, it might work. No such luck. Oh, and by the way, there was nothing wrong with the belt on the cassette player, but now the whole thing is toast. And, the sun was going down, and it was getting colder (for Atlanta), and I had a date to watch a movie.
Before I quit, I dug out two spare Lincoln radio/cassettes that look almost identical. One was from an 88 town car and one was from an 89 town car (I thought). I wrote down the part numbers, and I wrote down the colors of the wires.
After I got back from the movie date, I tried to look up (1) the wiring code for the 87 Ranger, and I couldn’t find anything that seemed to match what I’ve got (all original wires in my truck). The part number on the radio was obliterated from age.
FYI, when I grab something like a radio or anything else electronic from the scrapyard, I try to cut the cables and save the cable end, so I’ve got something to splice to if I need it. I used the part numbers from the two Lincoln radios to look up their wiring diagram/color codes.
I found the (2) 88 radio, and none of the colors matched the colors that are on the actual radio I have. When I googled the (3) 89 radio, it said it was from my Mark VII, but then the description said it was from an 88 or 89 Lincoln premium sound system. Both by 88 and my 87 Lincoln TCs have the premium sound systems which also have an amplifier independent of the radio, but they’ll slide right in to where the Ranger radio sits.
Long story short, none of the wiring diagram information from any of these matches web to actual, what’s actually on the radios. I looked all over the place, including The Ranger Station, and I couldn’t find a wiring diagram (diagram or the color codes). I found later models, but not the 87.
Can somebody direct me to the 87 wiring diagram and colors? I’m not afraid of splicing the wires if I can figure out which is which on either Lincoln radio, and what the 87 Ranger radio put out.
I don’t need any help going forward and leaving stuff alone if it ain’t broken. I can listen to cassettes at home. I can even listen to eight tracks at home. But I can’t drive a truck without a dashboard!
All help graciously appreciate appreciated
